Musical Theater

When Melissa was four years old, her parents took her to see “Fiddler on the Roof” at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Topol, the celebrated Israeli actor, starred as Tevye, the Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russian in 1905, struggling with changes in society and in his own family. Since that time, Melissa has had a life-long love of musical theater. She has attended Broadway musicals in New York, in London's West End, in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Dallas/Fort Worth and performed as a keyboardist and musical director for numerous productions.

As an undergraduate, while Melissa was in New York to perform in Carnegie Hall with her college choir, she and her parents saw "Ragtime," at the Ford Theater in New York. It immediately became a family favorite. To hear Melissa perform the title song from "Ragtime," click here: "Ragtime"

While a doctoral student at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, Melissa was the keyboardist for the world premier of the musical “American Dreams” at the Eclectic Company Theatre in North Hollywood. In 2006, she accompanied the Theater Palisades Kids productions of “Singin’ in the Rain” and “42nd Street.”

From 2006-2012, Dr. Sky-Eagle was the Musical Director and keyboardist at the Class Act Musical Theatre in Woodland Hills, California.

During the 2011-2012 Season, Melissa served as the Musical Director/Vocal Arranger for productions of "Spring Awakening" and "LOVE(SICK)" at Los Angeles Valley College, Valley Glen, CA. (Read the comments by Chris Coddington, Assistant Professor, Acting and Directing on the Recommendations page.) In 2013, she served as the Musical Director for LAVC's production of "Avenue Q," and "In the Heights" in 2015.

Currently, Melissa is an adjunct faculty member in the theater department at California State University, Los Angeles, acting as music director and vocal coach for their most recent production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. She also worked as musical director/keyboardist at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena, California, on productions of Threepenny Opera, A Christmas Carol, Man of La Mancha, and A Tale of Two Cities.

Listed below are some of the musical theater productions for which Melissa has served as Musical Director and Keyboardist:

During the 2016-2017 Season, Melissa was the Musical Director for Man of La Mancha at A Noise Within Theatre, Pasadena, CA

MAN OF LA MANCHA REVIEWS:BROADWAY WORLD--LOS ANGELES: Perfection! A Noise Within produces a stunning, modernistic, most entertaining take on MAN OF LA MANCHA, the tale of Don Quixote and his man servant Sancho during the sixteenth century Spanish Inquisition. Co-Producing Artistic Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliot most skillfully directs her very talented cast of thirteen, staging them in non-stop action; as the most inventive angry windmills, as a spontaneous spoon-clapping band of prisoners executing smooth scene changes, and as ruffians in fluid, realistic fight scenes.
With the very first note of their overture, Musical Director Dr. Melissa Sky-Eagle grabs the audience's attention with her seven-piece orchestra. Their combined musicality is so spot-on with Mitch Leigh's compositions.

LOS ANGELES TIMES: A fine revival from A Noise Within in Pasadena reminds us why the Dale Wasserman-Mitch Leigh-Joe Darion 1964 adaptation of the Don Quixote story, for all its familiarity, endures as one of the most substantive entries in the musical theater canon.
Even as it takes a bittersweet musical poke at overreaching imagination, “Man of La Mancha,” nevertheless, celebrates it as the noblest thing about us. Fans of the show will not be disappointed, and first-timers would be hard-pressed to find a better introduction.

STAGE AND CINEMA: Under the high-quality musical direction of Dr. Melissa Sky-Eagle is the superlative band. The Spanish-flavored music is clearly the lodestone of this production and the players truly made it a memorable evening.

ARTS BEAT LA: Musical director Dr. Melissa Sky-Eagle leads the seven-piece orchestra, nearly unseen over the audience's heads, deftly through the score, which the program describes as "Spanish-inspired" in its rhythms and instrumentation.

"Grease" (with John Melendez of "The Tonight Show" as Danny, Ming Na of "ER" as Sandy and "Ross the Intern" Mathews of "The Tonight Show" as Teen Angel)

Jeff Marx, one of the creators of "Avenue Q," visited a performance of "Avenue Q" at LA Valley College, where Melissa was the Musical Director and Keyboardist. Melissa is holding Jeff Marx' 2007 Tony Award for "Avenue Q."